C

　　The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on February 9 it would award its highest honour to Arthur Ashe， the tennis star and human rights fighter who died on February 6 of AIDS. He was 49.

　　The award， called the Olympic Order， is awarded to sportsmen and others for service to the Olympics and its principled.

　　Ashe never participated in the Olympics， but IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch said： “I think he was really a thorough Olympian.”

　　Ashe is the first black man to win Wimbledon and the only black to win the Australian US open titles.

　　Last April 8， he announced he had AIDS， which he got from a blood transfusion during a heart operation in 1983.

　　Ashe often worked for racial equality in and out of sports. He said the happiest moment of his life was not winning Wimbledon， but when Nelson Mandela—South Africa‘s antiapartheid (反種族隔離的) leader—was freed from jail in 1990.

　　A quote from Ashe： “I have good days and bad days. My ratio of good days to bad days is about six to one.”

　　( )59. The underlined word “award” in the first paragraph means “________”。

　　A. send a telegraph B. give a prize

　　C. congratulate somebody D. be in memory of somebody